Xi Ding

was born in China, moved in his 20’s to Vienna, and lives there since then. He work as live caricature artist.

Xi was first trained as a classical painter. Around 2009 he discovered his passion for drawing caricatures. He became a fan of the well-known artist Jan Op De Beeck from Belgium and studied his works enthusiastically. He was also deeply inspired by the ingenious American “Beastheads” artists like Nate Kapnicky, Eric Goodwin, etc. and studied their styles with great interests. He learned how to simplify shapes while keeping the essential features of a face from the former Disney artist Pete Emslie.

Xi works in both traditional and digital medium. In the last few years he has won several awards at European/international caricature conventions, including at Eurocature ’13-’16. In 2014 he was awarded “Best Character Design” from the “Austrian Computer Graphics Award”.